This invention relates to a fitting machine of a tag pin using a pneumatic cylinder as a driving source.
A tag pin of a synthetic resin has been used for fitting a price tag to products such as clothes and bags through which a pin can be penetrated. Such a tag pin includes a head, a filament portion extending perpendicularly from the center of the head in one direction and a transverse rod perpendicularly fixed to the end of this filament portion, and these constituent members are shaped integrally into an H shape. A large number of such tag pins are integrally molded from a synthetic resin such as nylon and propylene as a group of tag pins connected with one another in a comb-tooth shape on a connecting rod.
To put a price tag to products made of a relatively soft material such as clothes by using such a tag pin, it has been customary to punch the tag pin by a manual operation type fitting machine. When a lever retractively disposed at a front part of a grip portion of the fitting machine is pushed, a piston or a push rod operating in the interlocking arrangement with this lever is moved forth, and one of the group of tag pins is separated and is extruded by a hollow needle disposed at the front part of the fitting machine.
However, since the transverse rod is pushed towards the hollow needle by the lever in this manual tag pin fitting machine, fatigue of an operator is great when a large number of tag pins must be punched by the repetition of the punching work. When the products are made of a relatively hard material such as leather products or jeans, the hollow needle cannot easily pierce through the products and a great resistance occurs when the filament portion of the tag pin passes through the hole bored in the product. Accordingly, the pin fitting operation cannot be carried out for a long time using the manual fitting machine.
A power operation type fitting machine for picking the tag pin to such a thick and hard product has been proposed. For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 4-51421 and Japanese Utility Model Application Kokai Publication No. 1-6108 propose a fitting machine using an electric motor.
The fitting machine using the electric motor as the driving power source is effective for picking the tag pin into the relatively thin and soft product such as the clothes because the operator does not get tired. In the case of the relatively thick and hard products such as the leather products and the jeans, however, a great frictional resistance occurs when the filament portion penetrates through the product and required power becomes great, so that a cell for driving the electric motor is consumed rapidly.
To solve the problem of the fitting machine using the cell as the power source, Japanese Patent Application Kokai Publication No. 5-32238 proposes a fitting machine which uses a pneumatic cylinder as the driving source. This fitting machine becomes elongated by the length of the cylinder and heavier and larger, and is therefore suitable for fitting the tag pin while the fitting machine is fitted to a fitting frame fixed on a fixing bed. Accordingly, the following problems develop when the fitting machine using this pneumatic cylinder as the driving source is applied to a portable type device.
The first problem is that constituent members are disposed linearly and the length of the machine is elongated over the length from the tip of the hollow needle for feeding the transverse rod portion of the tag pin to the air cylinder at the rear part of the machine frame. Accordingly, the machine frame is long and great in size, and it is difficult to pierce the hollow needle, which forwardly protrudes, to the product and to pull a trigger disposed at the grip while holding the machine frame.
The second problem is that the hollow needle is always exposed. Therefore, there is the possibility that this hollow needle injures people or is broken during handling of this large and heavy fitting machine.
The problem described above results from the fact that the fitting machine is large in scale and too heavy, and it cannot be handled easily and speedily. In view of this problem, the present invention provides a fitting machine which is safe, can be easily handled by hand and moreover has high operability, by improving the fitting machine of the air cylinder drive type, that has mainly been used as the fixed type, to be a hand-held type.